A Falls Church man is lucky to be alive after he was caught in a deadly rip current in the Outer Banks in North Carolina.
71-year-old Dennis Kane was at the beach holding a memorial for his daughter Kerry, who died unexpectedly in 2020 at the age of 41. Kerry had graduated high school in the Outer Banks and considered it her home.
About 40 of Kane's family members gathered in the town of Corolla on the northern part of the Outer Banks to memorialize Kerry on what would have been the week of her birthday.
A group entered the water in order to release the remains of Kerry, which were contained as ashes in a biodegradable urn.
After a few minutes, the urn was still visibly floating in the Atlantic Ocean when it was supposed to sink, so Dennis went out to retrieve it. That's when onlookers say the waters started to get really rough due to Tropical Storm Ana lurking far off the coast. They called 911.
Adam Zboyovski, a surfer and who worked with a beach supply rental company saw what was going on, leapt into action.
He grabbed his surfboard and rushed out to rescue Kane. His family says he would have likely died had Zboyovski not been there and grabbed him from the water in time.
Dennis was treated by a family member on the beach who is a registered nurse and then he was transported to the hospital and treated for water in his lungs. He was released the following day.
Zboyovski has had to rescue others from rip currents before.
"I just happen to always have a board close by. This one was tough because the ocean conditions were really bad and I couldn't read the ocean like on an average day. Also, the board had no wax at all on it so I was slipping off just paddling out," he recalls.
Adam stopped by the family's rental home a few days later so that they could all thank him.
"Not all heroes wear capes. Sometimes they have surfboards," wrote Shannon Smith, Kerry's sister.
Source: InsideNoVa.com